No, we are not even collecting the donations. Donations
made through our web site go directly
to Child's Play. Our goal is only to raise awareness
of Child's Play and prove that, "When gamers give back,
it makes a difference!"

Are you planning anything different for this year?

Yes! First, we're adding New Super Mario Bros. Wii and Super Mario Galaxy 2.
To accommodate we are setting a donation goal for each and every one of
the over 800 stars/levels in the nine games on our list.

Where did this idea come from?

The concept was borrowed (with permission) from a guy named
Cameron Banga and some
of his friends, who attempted to complete
Four 3D Zelda games in 48 hours. Watching how much fun they had, I
couldn't help but want to attempt something similar. It started
out with me asking a couple of my friends if they'd be down for a
weekend of non-stop gaming, that turned into us deciding that
we might as well make it official and document the whole thing
online and see if we can raise some money for charity.

How will my donations get to Child's Play?

Donations are made directly to Child's Play via PayPal. We are using
a PayPal service called Instant Payment Notification to track the
donations made during our event. Be sure to use the
Donate Now! button on our web site to
ensure that your donation is attributed to the Mario Marathon.

Why aren't you using Chipin this year?

In previous years we've used a service called ChipIn to track
donations made during our event. This year we have built our
own equivalent to ChipIn. This allows us to better track the
donations we receive and be sure that all of our viewers are
seeing the most up to date donation totals.

Are you good at these games?

No! Last year we spent 96 hours completing seven games.
If things go as planned we'll be playing even longer this year.

What versions of these games will be played?

We intend to play all of the games on the Nintendo Wii via
the Virtual Console, Gamecube, and Wii discs. We may opt
to play some portion of the 2D mario games on an SNES using
the Super Mario Allstars cartridge.

Is warping allowed?

Yes. We've opted to split the levels in some of the longer games
into two passes. The first pass always includes enough levels to
beat the game. The second pass will complete any levels skipped
during the first pass. This is done to help ensure every game
makes an appearance during the event.

How do you benefit from this event?

Other than 15 minutes of Internet fame we see no direct benefit.
In fact, the Mario Marathon team spends a lot of our own money
making donations, buying prizes, mailing press releases, etc.
The event is a hobby and a way to create a bigger charitable impact
than we could afford ourselves.

Why aren't you playing XYZ?

Who knows, maybe we will play XYZ this year. We'll see.

How do you plan to stay awake?

The pure excitement of Mario saving all those princesses should keep us
going.

Is there anything I can do to help?

At this point we're just trying to get the word out. Do what you can
to promote the event. follow
us on twitter.

How can I submit Fan Art for the web site?

We've setup a fanart submission process to assist us in
getting the art up and to make it easier for everyone to browse the
artwork. Use the Fan Art Submission Form to
get started.

How do you plan to webcast the video?

Ustream.tv is being used to host
our video stream. Equipment wise, we've got a Logitech Quickcam, a Dazzle Video Capture device,
two omni-directional microphones, and a sound mixer hooked up to a
Dell PC running Windows 7 and webcammax.

Goal Progress

Brian "Shirt Guy" Brinegar

John "Couch Guy" Groth

Chris "Slouch Guy" Deckard

Unofficial Mario Marathon is a completely fan run fundraiser. All donations are made directly to Child's Play Charity. We are in no way affiliated with Nintendo or any other video game company. All trademarks are property of their respective owners.